Maren Ade is the best

Man, I really messed up on that Basha post below. I ass-umed that because a restaurant billed itself as "Jerusalem" cuisine that it was Israeli instead of Palestinian and then even thought their wall hanging was in Hebrew when it is obviously Arabic. Duh. I hope this new (opened in Jan) restaurant can hold on so I can write something about it and educate my dumb ass.

I am currently waiting on a Ticketmaster bot to help me get a refund from that Kings game that they promised me would be here soon over a week ago! I was supposed to go the night the entire season got canceled and I've got money for four tickets coming back. I understand they are scrambling and their business is super effed, but they already said it would be coming and now they are like "I don't see that, let me check our records". Then they said "it will be in as soon as 30 days" which I screengrabbed for next time I have to chat with the bot.

This absolute BABE (which is immaterial, but a fact) is the German director Maren Ade, who is a somewhat unsung genius. She def. got acclaim for her movie Toni Erdmann, which was wonderful, but I feel like she should be up there in the Serious Dude Director canon and it doesn't feel like she is. Criterion has both of her other movies up. They are both insane in their own way. The Forest for the Trees is the story of a socially awkward bumpkin who moves to the city to be a teacher and can't make friends and is desperately lonely. It is so REAL it will kill you. And Everyone Else, which was from 2009 and was the last before Toni Erdmann, has more weird mind-fuck pranks like TE. It's about a TERRIBLE relationship and also feels very real, and the plot involves a German couple on vacay in Sardinia so it kind of feels like a mini (but bad) vacation. I'd like to point out that Ade is only 43, which means that she was like 26 when she was directing Forest, wunderkind anyone? Her new movie is released in April, so if movie theaters still exist then I will even drive to the Bay Area to see it.